


Scene at Sunrise

by Stariceling



Category: Strike Witches
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Surprise Pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-09
Updated: 2010-06-09
Packaged: 2017-12-06 01:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/730225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stariceling/pseuds/Stariceling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While preparing breakfast, Yoshika encounters something unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scene at Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I liked Strike Witches, in spite of everyone running around in their underwear. (This wouldn't have bothered me if it was just the main cast, because trousers/skirts + jet engines strapped to legs = no, but no apparently skirts are illegal for everyone.) I had to check it out because catgirls with heavy artillery and leg-engines are yay, but I stayed for the cute girl's love ~~sub~~ text everywhere. ^^; Pretty much.

Early morning, just about dawn, was becoming one of the times when Yoshika felt happiest with her new life. When it was this still Yoshika forgot to worry. Morning was the same everywhere. . . in some ways, at least. It was peaceful here, and deeply quiet if she left the window closed. The silence had no real sense of loneliness in it, because she knew she wasn’t alone.

Soon enough everyone would be up and ready for breakfast. Just the thought of everyone enjoying breakfast together was cheerful company. Even before that, Lynne might wake up a little early and come help. Mio would be long awake, though it was rare for her to step into the kitchen between finishing her morning exercise and getting cleaned up for breakfast. Rare, but not impossible.

Yoshika hummed happily to herself as she sliced green onions and tipped them into a pot of simmering stock. Miso soup had become a breakfast staple, though some of the ingredients had to be rotated based on what supplies were on hand. (Today she’d added diced potatoes at the very beginning so that they would cook well, and a handful of dried shrimp that drifted to the top any time the stock bubbled.) It did make cooking interesting sometimes. Even Mio had complimented her on the variety, though receiving that praise had felt distressingly embarrassing at the time.

With breakfast well on its way, Yoshika paused to push the kitchen window open. A tiny breeze puffed in almost immediately to ruffle her hair. There was still a hint of night chill in the air that would soon be warmed away.

Bracing both hands on the counter to put her face out the window, Yoshika took a deep breath of fresh air. She could smell the salty brine of the sea and a freshness in the air that made her think again of how peaceful the early morning felt.

Out the window she spotted Sanya on the outside path that led from the hanger up to the base living quarters. She must be just returning from flying another night mission. Her short, silver hair was still fluffed in all directions from the wind.

Eila was on the same path, trotting out to meet Sanya almost before Yoshika had noticed either of them. Sanya had stopped in the middle of the path, but took half a step forward into Eila’s hands, leaning into the other girl for support.

Sanya must be terribly tired if she was leaning on Eila like that. They were talking together, too quietly for Yoshika to hear the words. All Yoshika could think was that she hoped Sanya would get something to eat before retreating to her room for sleep.

“Sa-” Yoshika started to call to her sister-in-arms, to offer her an extra-early breakfast before bed, but found herself stalled in surprise. Her throat was suddenly too tight to let out even a startled squeak.

Eila had moved to kiss Sanya on the mouth.

The two of them remained frozen, like the perfect stillness in a photograph, for what seemed like such a long time. Yet it was still not long enough for Yoshika to unfreeze herself. Maybe it was just her brain that stopped, trying to decipher the unexpected scene in front of her.

When they parted Sanya had her eyes closed. Her head was tipped back, as it sometimes did when she fell asleep on her feet. Eila had one hand cupped under Sanya’s chin. That was all the detail Yoshika took in before she remembered to duck back into the kitchen. 

Guilty embarrassment made Yoshika fumble as she tried to go back to preparing breakfast. Watching something like that even was worse than eavesdropping. She should have at least called out a greeting and let them know she was there before. . . .

Yoshika took a deep breath and put down her knife before she could cut herself. Maybe it was a little bit of Mio’s training coming through, or maybe it was the sense that if she flailed around she would ruin everyone’s breakfast, but somehow she made herself be still.

She had known Eila and Sanya were very close, but being close and being. . . that kind of close weren’t quite the same, were they? Whichever kind of close they were, it was obviously there. She could almost still see them in her minds eye, leaning in to meet each other, with the faintly yellow light of sunrise glowing in silver hair.

They looked so beautiful together.

Shaking her head furiously, Yoshika tried to put the mental image aside. She felt so painfully embarrassed for them, because she shouldn’t have been watching. Something like that was surely meant to be private.

She couldn’t trouble them about it, obviously. Well, she had known already they were close friends, so what would even change? She was only embarrassing herself, dwelling on other people’s private moments. As soon as everyone else was up, the day would be too full to even think about it.

A few deep breaths and she could safely return to work. She did move a little more slowly now, trying to stay completely focused on each task that came under her hands.

The things Yoshika was reluctant to think about didn’t exactly lie in the simple realization that Sanya and Eila’s relationship was a little closer than she had known. Deep in the back of her mind there were tiny little buds of thoughts starting to open, even as Yoshika refused to examine them properly. There were things waiting there that she had never taken the time to think about very carefully.

Yoshika ignored those confused, guilty little scraps of thought. She pushed them down well enough that, later, when Mio gave her a calm smile across the breakfast table and a casual compliment on her newest recipe for miso soup at least she could say her blush was out of plain humility.


End file.
